A Cloud of Witnesses
April, 2007
Paschal Greeting
(transliterated)
(English) Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
(Greek) Khrístos anísti! Alethós anésti!
(Slavonic) Khristós Voskrése! Voyéstino voskrése!
(Arabic) Al-Masíh qám! Hákan qam!
(Romanian) Histós a inviát! Adevarát a inviát!
(Spanish) Christo a resucitado! En verdad ha resucitado!
(Swedish) Christus ar uppstánden!
Han ar vérkligen uppstánden!
All Saints Orthodox Church
Salina, Kansas
All Saints Orthodox Church
2818 Scanlan Avenue, Salina, KS 67401
Church: 823-3735 Home: 309-0858 Cell: (785) 820-0287
E-mail:
St. Mary Magdalene Orthodox Mission, 913 Riley Lane, Manhattan KS 66502
E-mail:
Website: www.orthodoxkansas.org
Right Rev’d. Fr. Daniel S. Griffith, pastor
(E-mail: )
Very Rev’d. Fr. Thomas Neustrom, (823-2410)
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Homilies of the Holy Fathers
for Great &Holy Week & Holy Pascha
This year, let the holy Fathers, those revered & eloquent teachers of the faith, lead us on our pilgrimage through Holy & Great Week, the Week which leads to the joyous celebration of Christ’s victory over death and Hades, over sin and the devil and his minions, the enemies who have tyrannized our human race from the time of the Fall of our First-Parents.
Blessed is he the Comes in the Name of the Lord.
Blessed is the King of Israel.
St. Andrew,
Archbishop of Crete (+740)
Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. He returns from Bethany & proceeds of His own free will toward His holy & blessed Passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation. He Who came down from heaven to raise us from the depths of sin, to raise us with Himself we are told in Scripture, “above every sovereignty, authority & power, & every other name that can be named”, now comes of His own free will to make His journey to Jerusalem. He comes without pomp or ostentation. As the Psalmist says, “He will not dispute or raise His voice to make it heard in the streets”. He will be meek & humble, & He will make His entry in simplicity. Let us run to accompany Him as He hastens toward His Passion, & imitate those who met Him then, not by covering His path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before Him by being humble & by trying to live as He would wish. Then we shall be able to receive the Word at His coming; & God, Whom no limit can contain, will be within us. In His humility Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world, & He is glad that He became so humble for our sake, glad that He came & lived among us & shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to Himself. & even though we are told that He has now ascended above the highest heavens – the proof, surely, of His power & Godhead – His love for man will never rest until He has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory & made it one with His own in heaven. So let us spread before His feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours & then wither, but ourselves, clothed in His grace, or rather, clothed completely in Him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before Him. Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of Baptism & we have become white as pure wool, let us present the Conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms, but with the real rewards of His victory. Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today the children’s holy song: “Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord. Blessed is the King of Israel”.
The Bread of Heaven & the Cup of Salvation
St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem (+386)
On the night He was betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ took bread &, when He had given thanks, He broke it & gave it to His disciples & said, “take, eat, this is My Body”. He took the cup, gave thanks & said, “Take, drink: this is My Blood”. Since Christ Himself has declared the bread to be His Body, who can have any further doubt? Since He Himself has said quite categorically, “This is My Blood”, who would dare to question it & say that it is not His [own most precious] Blood? Therefore, it is with complete assurance that we receive the Bread & Wine as the [true] Body & Blood of Christ. His Body is given to us under the symbol [outward form] of bread, & His Blood is given to us under the symbol [outward form] of wine, in order to make us, by receiving Them, one body & blood with Him. Having His Body & Blood in our members, we become bearers of Christ & sharers, as St. Peter says, “in the Divine nature”. Once, when speaking to the Jews, Christ said, “Unless you eat the My Flesh & drink My Blood you shall have no life in you”. This horrified them, & they left Him. Not understanding His words in a spiritual [though real] way, they thought the Saviour wished them to practice cannibalism. Under the old covenant, there was shewbread, but it came to an end with the old dispensation to which it belonged. Under the new covenant, there is Bread from Heaven & the Cup of Salvation. These sanctify both soul & body, the Bread being adapted to the sanctification of the body, the Word to the sanctification of the soul. Do not, then, regard the Eucharistic Elements as ordinary bread & wine; they are in fact the Body & Blood of the Lord, as He Himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in faith. You have been taught, & you are firmly convinced that what looks & tastes like bread & wine is not bread & wine, but Body & Blood of Christ. You know also how David referred to this ages before when he sang, “Wine maketh glad the heart of man. To make his face cheerful with oil; & Bread strengtheneth man’s heart”. Strengthen your heart, then, by receiving this bread as spiritual Bread, & bring joy to the face of your souls. May purity of conscience remove the veil from the face of your souls so that by contemplating the Glory of the Lord, as in a mirror, you may be transformed from glory to glory in Christ Jesus our Lord. To Him be glory for ever & ever. Amen.
The Power of Christ’s Blood
St. John Chrysostom,
Archbishop of Constantinople (+407)
If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s Blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish”, commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors”. If we were to ask him what he meant, & how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the face that it is a sign of the Lord’s Blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not the figurative blood on the doors, but the true Blood of the lips of believers, the doors of the [true] temple of Christ. If you desire further proof of the power of this Blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the Cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The Gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hanging on the Cross, a soldier came & pierced His side with a lance & immediately there poured forth water & blood. Now the Water was a symbol of Baptism & the Blood, of the Holy Eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple. I have found the treasure & made it my own. So also with the Lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim, & I have been saved by it. “From His side there flowed forth Blood & Water”. Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that Water & Blood symbolized Baptism & the Holy Eucharist. From these two mysteries the Church is born: from Baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth & renewal through the Holy Spirit”, & from the Holy Eucharist. Since the symbols of Baptism & the Eucharist flowed from His side, it was from His side that Christ fashioned the Church, as He had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when he tells of the story of the first man & makes him exclaim, “Bone from my bone & flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ gives us Bood & Water from His side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, & in the same way Christ gave us the Blood & the Water from His own death. So you understand, then, how Christ has united His Bride to Himself & what Food He gives us all to eat? By one & the same Food we are both brought into being & nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood & milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with His own Blood those to whom He Himself has given life.
The Lord Descends into Hades
St. Epiphanius,
Bishop of Cyprus (+403)
Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence & stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled & is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh & He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh & Hades trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first-parent as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness & in the shadow of death, He has gone to free from sorrow, the captives, Adam & Eve, He Who is both God & the Son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the Cross, the weapon that had won Him the victory. At the sight of Him Adam, the first man He had created, struck his breast in terror & cried out to everyone, “My Lord be with us all”. Christ answered him, “And with your spirit”. He took him by the hand & raised him up, “Awake, O sleeper, & rise from the dead, & Christ will give you light”. “I am your God, Who for your sake have become your Son. Out of love for you & your descendants I now by My own authority command all who are in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in Hades. Rise from the dead, for I am the Life of the dead. Rise up, work of My hands, you who were created in My image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me & I am in you; together we form only one Person & we cannot be separated. “For your sake I, your God, became your Son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, Whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth & beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left the garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, & I was crucified in a garden. “See on My face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in My image. On my back, see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a Tree for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil]. I slept on the Cross & a sword pierced My side for you who slept in Paradise when brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in Hade. The sword that pierced Me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you. Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly Paradise. I will not restore you to that Paradise, but I will enthrone you in Heaven. I forbade you the that was only a symbol of life, but see, I Who am Life Itself am now tree one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but you now I make them worship you as god. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift & eager. The Bridal Chamber is all adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling-places are prepared, the treasure-houses for all good things lie open. The Kingdom of Heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.”
Christ is Risen